18:30 19 April OPINION: North Korean Nuclear Test Could Trigger Conflict In Middle East By Leonard Spector WASHINGTON, April 19, Kyodo Although the April 13 talks in Istanbul on curtailing Iran's nuclear program made little progress, they set the stage for serious negotiations to begin in May. Developments in North Korea, however, could cut the process short, if a North Korean nuclear test exacerbates fears that Pyongyang and Tehran are collaborating on the design of a nuclear weapon. Such collaboration would be the natural evolution of past collaboration on intermediate-range missiles. During the 1990s, Pyongyang sold Iran the No-Dong system,...

The government will stand or fall in the next two weeks depending on what happens in the Israeli community of Beit El, north of Jerusalem. Ministers have informed Netanyahu that if the Ulpana neighborhood of Beit El is destroyed, his coalition will follow. The warning came during a cabinet meeting in which the timetable for Judea and Samaria demolitions was revealed. Ulpana is scheduled to be demolished on May 1, the Givat Assaf community several weeks later, and Migron on August 1. Ministers told Netanyahu that the timetable is irrelevant, because if the May 1 destruction of Ulpana were to...

Hatred of Jews is the central animating feature of the political and strategic reality of the Middle East. It is hatred of Jews that dictates the legal regimes, foreign policies, military aspirations, cultural mores, educational themes and even public health policies of our neighbors from Ramallah to Teheran. Despite the centrality of Jew hatred in all aspects of public life in the Arab and Muslim world, our neighbors' unrelenting and irrational abhorrence for Israel and the Jewish people remains a dirty secret that you aren't supposed to mention in polite company. From Washington to Brussels, talk of the policy implications...

The commander of the Iranian Armed Forces said on Wednesday that Iran has notified the two U.S. aircraft carriers deployed in the Persian Gulf that they are not allowed to stop in certain areas of the Persian Gulf designated by Iranian naval forces, MNA reported. "We had previously notified them that they must not stop in the areas of the Persian Gulf which are considered areas of threat for us, and they heeded the warning," Major General Ataollah Salehi said in an interview with the Persian service of the Fars News Agency published on Wednesday.

Islamic genocide: 1912 - 2012 = at leat 12 Million victims 1.) Targeting Christians (750000 Assyrians, 500000 Greeks and 1.5 million Armenians.* = 2.7 million) by Islamic Turkey (as an ethnic cleansing* as well as a jihad*), was genocide! 2.) Annihilating 3 million * Bangalis in 1971 by Pakistanis who thought they are ethnically and religiously inferior or not "pure"*, was genocide. 3.) Massacring three million of Igbo/Biafrans between May 30th 1967 and January 1970 by the Islamic government of Nigeria * was genocide. 4.) Targeting by apartheid* Syria, Arab-Islamic Alawites supremacists upon Sunnis to kill as many as possible...

Pray For the Peace of Jerusalem Isaiah 49 Promise to Zion 14 But Zion said, “The LORD has forsaken me, And the Lord has forgotten me.” 15 “Can a woman forget her nursing child And have no compassion on the son of her womb? Even these may forget, but I will not forget you. 16 “Behold, I have inscribed you on the palms of My hands; Your walls are continually before Me. 17 “Your builders hurry; Your destroyers and devastators Will depart from you. 18 “Lift up your eyes and look around; All of them gather together, they come...

At Johns Hopkins, reviving a dying art In 1970, Cynthia Ozick published an essay suggesting that in light of the rapid decline of Yiddish among American Jewry, English could serve as the new language of the Jews: "a language for our need." Ozick has since retracted this opinion-and yet, the issues that drove to her raise the idea remain: What role, if any, does Yiddish still play for Jews in this country? If it can be maintained, in what form? Tamar Nachmany, a junior at Johns Hopkins University has a compelling new answer to these questions in the form of...

One of the favorite myths of the left is that the right is the source of all anti-Semitism. To be sure, there are anti-Semites on the right – much of the constituency of Ron Paul is deeply anti-Semitic, as is the Pat Buchanan crew. But while many conservatives sympathize with Ron Paul’s small government program, both Paul and Buchanan are considered fringe characters on the right overall. The same is not true for the left. Mainstream figures on the American left rub elbows with anti-Semites on a regular basis. Many of them embrace the anti-Semitic program of forcing Israel into...

The Military Court at Machane Ofer north of Jerusalem convened Wednesday for a session in the ongoing trial of the murderers of Asher and Yonatan Palmer, the father and baby son who were targeted in their car on September 23. Video MK Michael Ben-Ari (National Union) was also present at the session. Michael Craig Palmer, father of Asher and grandfather of Yonatan, has enlisted the services of Attorney Adrian Agassi – until recently a judge at the same military court. Agassi asked the court to give him the status of the victims' representative in the trial. He was recruited because...

On Sunday evening, Jewish homes in the Jerusalem neighborhood of Maale HaZeitim were attacked with a barrage of Molotov cocktails, causing damage to property. Miraculously, no injuries were reported, though some neighborhood children who were nearby the attack reported being traumatized by the event. The attacker managed to throw approximately 10 homemade bombs at apartment buildings belonging to the Jewish neighborhood, before being scared off by a guard who fired his weapon in the air. Maale HaZeitim is situated on the historic Mount of Olives, just south of the ancient Jewish cemetery containing 150,000 graves, including that of former Prime...

JERUSALEM - For centuries it has been known as "Absalom's Tomb." People made pilgrimages to it. Jews, Christians, and Muslims would throw stones at it to punish King David's rebellious son. But now, because of an almost chance discovery, one of Jerusalem's oldest landmarks is reemerging as one of the sites of early Christianity. A recently unveiled inscription, believed to date circa AD 350, identifies the monument as the tomb of Zacharias, the father of John the Baptist. Scholars say it does not necessarily mean Zacharias was buried on the site and some completely discount that possibility. But the find...

As their first Iran vs. Israel video passes the 1 million view mark, Jeremy Gimpel and Ari Abramowitz of TheLandofIsrael.com have released part 2: Iran vs. Israel - No Fear. The video has already garnered more than 250,000 views. video

Shurat HaDin – Israel Law Center has received notice that the US Supreme Court decided to dismiss a lawsuit brought on behalf of the family of a Palestinian-American murdered at the hands of Palestinian intelligence officers in Jericho in 1995. The Court ruled that the Torture Victim Protection Act, as it is currently drafted, did not allow the family to sue the Palestinian Authority and Palestine Liberation Organization. The Justices held that the use of the term “individual” in the law’s wording denoted that only private individuals, rather than corporations or organizations, could be targeted. “We were sorry to hear...

Pray For the Peace of Jerusalem Psalm 25 A Psalm of David. 1. To You, O LORD, I lift up my soul. 2. O my God, I trust in You; Let me not be ashamed; Let not my enemies triumph over me. 3. Indeed, let no one who waits on You be ashamed; Let those be ashamed who deal treacherously without cause. 4. Show me Your ways, O LORD; Teach me Your paths. 5. Lead me in Your truth and teach me, For You are the God of my salvation; On You I wait all the day. 6. Remember,...

The Jews had significant competition in antiquity when it came to worshipping Yahweh. Archeologists have discovered a second great temple not far from Jerusalem that predates its better known cousin. It belonged to the Samaritans, and may have been edited out of the Bible once the rivalry had been decided. Clad in a gray coat, Aharon ben Ab-Chisda ben Yaacob, 85, is sitting in the dim light of his house. He strikes up a throaty chant, a litany in ancient Hebrew. He has a full beard and is wearing a red kippah on his head. The man is a high...

In some cases the traditional text is clearly superior, but in others the version in the scrolls is better. Thanks to the scrolls, more and more textual problems in the Hebrew Bible are being resolved. The notes in newer Bible translations list variant readings from the scrolls, and in some cases, the translations incorporate these readings in the text as the preferred reading. No one has ever seriously suggested that the Dead Sea Scrolls contain anything like an eleventh commandment; but the scrolls do help clarify numerous difficult phrases in the Hebrew Bible, and for textual scholars that is more...

It is a mystery in the desert hills near Los Lunas, New Mexico. It has puzzled experts for more than 50 years. It has been referred to by many different names -- Ten Commandments Rock, Mystery Rock, The Los Lunas Decalogue Stone. It is most commonly known as the Mystery Stone. Mystery Stone is located at the base of Hidden Mountain, on New Mexico state trust land, about 16 miles west of Los Lunas. It is a boulder weighing an estimated 80 to 100 tons and is about eight meters in length. Nine rows of 216 characters were chiseled at...

Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu delivered a hard hitting speech centering on the Iranian threat, in the central Holocaust Memorial Day ceremony at Yad Vashem Wednesday. Such a direct reference to current events and politics in the Holocaust Memorial is unusual. "On this day, we must realize a supreme obligation, and this obligation is not just to remember the past but also to learn its lessons, and most importantly – to implement these lessons, in order to continue to safeguard our nation's future," said Netanyahu. "This is especially true in our generation, which again faces the call to destroy the Jewish...

Iran has released more details about what it says was Israel-backed terror plot broken up last week, including the revelation that 15 people, accused of being Iranian and foreign spies, were arrested for planning to assassinate an Iranian expert. -excerpt- Iranian officials said on Tuesday that the "Mossad-linked spies and terrorists" were trying to "identify and assassinate one of our nation's experts and to bomb some of the nation's installations using professionally made technical tools," according to the Jewish Telegraph Agency. excerpt- The announcement comes after a report earlier this month that Iran's Intelligence Ministry had busted a network it...